Full of a conversation we hadn't had yet.
We need to have that conversation. Soon. Very soon.
But not tonight.
Today had already been so deep.
So much.
I wouldn't pile more onto her shoulders.
Instead, I pulled Nyomi close and kissed her. Those lips were soft as silk against mine, tasting faintly of ice cream.
My hands cradled her face, and then moved down to her shoulder where my thumbs brushed across the bite marks I’d given her.
She shivered and then her fingers curled into my shirt, tugging me closer until I could feel her heartbeat against my chest.
Wild and perfect.
I brought my hands back up to her face and the kiss deepened, became a language of its own—each gentle press and parting a promise, a confession, a vow.
Time dissolved around us.
I kissed her deeper.
And the thoughts came crashing in.
Not the careful, strategic thoughts of the Dragon. Not war plans or power moves or the thousand decisions waiting for me tomorrow.
These were older.
More primal.
From a place beneath the throne.
She's more than mine.
Not my Tiger.
Not my Heart.
Not even the woman who exposed my father's and the Lion’s spies, proving herself invaluable to my empire.
She's my soul mate.
The word detonated inside my chest.
Soul mate.
My mother's stories were real. The shadow beasts were real. And if the shadow beasts were real, then everything else was too—the bonding, the choosing, the ancient recognition between two souls that were built to find each other.
This wasn't just love.
This was fate confirming what my blood had known from the moment I first inhaled her lush scent of black amber and ripe plum.
She will be my wife.
My hands tightened on her.
